discussing, in open Court, how far the
Attorney-General had proved to be an effective public servant, must be
apparent to everybody. And it must be admitted that the discussion was
provoked by Justice Willis, who had made something very like an attack
upon the Attorney-General--an attack based upon the unsworn statements
of an indicted libeller. He had moreover permitted Collins to go a most
unwarrantable length in his onslaught upon the Crown prosecutor, more
especially as no affidavits had been produced in support of the motion.
A layman who comes before the Courts _inops consilii_ is allowed more
latitude in the conduct of his case than is generally conceded to a
counsel whose professional business it is to plead at the bar; but the
latitude permitted in the case under consideration was beyond all
legitimate bounds. The Judge's dislike to the Attorney-General seems to
have predisposed him to believe that all Collins's allegations were
true. In reality they were exaggerated presentations of notorious facts.
That they were largely founded upon facts Judge Willis probably knew
from common hearsay. But while sitting on the bench he had nothing to do
with common hearsay. _A fortiori_, he was not justified, upon the mere
assumption of a hypothetical case,[102] in admonishing the
Attorney-General in the presence of his accuser, and in humiliating him
in the presence of the bar of which he was the rightful head. An English
judge would be considered as departing widely beyond the sphere of his
duty if he were thus openly to arraign the conduct of the
Attorney-General, especially in a matter clearly lying, as in the case
under consideration, within that officer's discretion. English judges,
on the contrary, are much more likely to interpose on behalf of the
officers of the Crown, and to prevent their acts and motives from being
called in question in open Court by persons against whom proceedings
have been instituted by them. Judge Willis seems to have been wrong in
his law, wrong in his etiquette, wrong in his temper, and wrong in his
construction of judicial amenities.

Henceforth the Judge's "amoval" was only a matter of time, for the
entire influence of the Executive, direct and indirect, was arrayed
against him. From the Lieutenant-Governor down to the most insignificant
clerk in the departments there arose a howl of indignation against the
man who had dared to set up his wife in opposition to Lady Sarah
Maitland; who had